This chapter presents the introduction of the research paper. It consists of
background of the study, literature review, problem statement, limitation of the study,
objective of the study, benefit of the study, research method and research paper
organization.
A.Background of the Study
People who work in literature usually represent their work in such kind of
literary works. Literature is a term used to describe a written or spoken material.
Broadly speaking, "literature" is used to describe anything from creative writing to
more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to
works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and
nonfiction. Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But,
literature is more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature
introduces us to new worlds of experience. We learn about books and literature;
we enjoy the comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may
even grow and evolve through our literary journey with books, (Lombardi (2013)
in http://classiclit.about.com/od/literaryterms/g/aa_whatisliter.htm).
Through those kinds of literary work such as poems, stories and plays,
Ultimately, people may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the
author says and how he/she says it. We may interpret the author's message. In
academic circles, this decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of
literary theory, using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or
other approach.
So, in this study, the researcher is interested in analyzing one of literary
works, that is the novel, entitled The Land of Five Towers an Islamic and
education novel by Ahmad Fuadi and Angie Kilbane. Gramedia Pustaka Utama
(GPU) published The Land of Five Towers on November 2, 2011. The theory used
by the researcher is individual psychological approach by Adler. In this theory, the
researcher wants to show about the effort of the major character Alif to become an
international journalist.
The definition of effort is how much time or work of human is spent in
performing an activity or occupation, related with research, patient, care,
administration, and dream. Everyone should have a dream and try to reach the
dream. When they have more attempts, it will be easy to make their dreams come
true. The people who want to reach the dream should be learning much longer,
working hard and praying. Therefore, it is not only physically but also mentally.
That should be balance to support the effort.
In individual psychological approach, the effort stands in a form of striving
of superiority where an individual is faced with a task to overcome or master the
this striving is not for personal superiority over others, but an overcoming of the
task, or finding useful answers to questions in life. When faced with the task, the
individual will experience a feeling of inferiority or a sense that the current
situation is not as good as it could be. This feeling is similar to stress. If the
individual has not been properly trained, the task may seem too much to overcome
and lead to an exaggerated feeling of inferiority, or intense anxiety. The individual
may, after several unsuccessful attempts to accomplish the task, give up on
mastering the task, experiencing the inferiority complex, or a depressed state. The
individual may also make several attempts at solving the problem and find a
solution to the problem that causes problems in other areas. An individual who
answers the question "How can I be thin?" by not eating will become thin, but at
the cost over their overall health.
The striving for superiority appears a lot in every part of chapter in the
novel, where The Land of Five Towers novel tells about Alif, a boy who has a
dream to be an engineer like Habibie. He is at third grade in an Islamic school,
named Madrasah that has same grade with Junior High school. However, Alif
wishes to continue his study to public high school. He has a best friend named
Randai. Randai has the same passion with Alif. They want to continue their study
to public high school in Bukit Tinggi.
Nevertheless, Alif’s mother asks Alif to attend a boarding Islamic school in
order to become a great religious leader with wide knowledge like his grandfather,
engineer. One day, Alif gets a letter from his uncle Mr.Gindo. He suggested Alif
to continue his study to Madani modern Pesantren, West Java. Madani Pesantren
(MP) is Islamic boarding school. In Pesantren they do not only study about
universal knowledge but also they learn Islamic studies. Then, Alif decided to go
to Pesantren like his mother wishes. On his way, his father accompanied him.
Then, they traveled about 3 days with fear.
In the first day, they take a walk in Madani Pesantren (MP) to look the
situation and prepare to entrance the examination. It will be difficult test for Alif.
He studies hard to perform the exam. Finally, Alif passed the exam. However, he
did not believe if he passed the exam and defeated many people. Alif stayed at al
Barq room with Ustad Salman as a teacher of that room. He gets new friends; they
are Dulmajid, Raja, Atang, Said and Baso. In the first meeting, ustad Salman said
a motivating word “Man Jadda Wajada”. Then, they follow to say that word until
one hour. That word is simple but it has powerful meaning. The meaning is “He
who gives his all will surely succeed”. Man Jadda Wajada is called magical
Arabic chant. Alif remains that word because it can motivate him to do everything.
Fellowship of Manara, is the name for them; Alif, Dulmajid, Baso, Atang
Said and Raja. Their friends call the Fellowship of Manara because they
frequently gathered around in the mosque’s towering minaret to make a plan of
their own dream. They are always together in every moment, not only in the
In Madani Pesantren (MP), every student must follow public speaking
training. The activity is held three times in a week during two hours. The students
are divided into some groups. Each group consists of 40 students. Every people
have 5 minutes to speech in front of the audience. They should collect their
manuscript before performance. They perform without using text and the
manuscript is divided into three languages; English, Indonesia and Arab. That
week, Alif becomes a speaker with English language. He can finish the manuscript
so well and the performance is good. Ustad Salman appreciates Alif. He hangs an
ID photo of Alif around his neck, entitled: “Journalist of Syam”, campus
magazine. Alif is very happy. He tries to write everything and send to some
magazine and newspaper out of Madani, although he knows he cannot write well.
Alif hopes a newspaper can publish one of his writings. Finally, a newspaper as
“reader letter” publishes one of his writings.
Ustad Salman gives advice to Alif that he should read Tempo magazine to
improve his writing skill. Nevertheless, Tempo magazine is a good magazine. It
reports some important news of the world. Alif is interested with Tempo magazine
because the magazine is packed in readable language. After that, Alif thinks to
change his dream from an engineer to become a journalist.
In several occasion, Alif reports some good news from people who come to
Madani Pesantren (MP). They want to know about the learning process in Madani
Pesantren (MP). With the magical Arabic chant “Man Jadda Wajada”, he never
God to reach his dream. Finally, after graduated from Madani Pesantren Alif
becomes international journalist of Tempo magazine. Unbelievable, his dream
comes true. The graduates of Pesantren do not only become an Ustad, but also they
can get the job as they want.
There are some reasons of why the researcher chooses the The Land of Five
Towers novel as an object. First, the novel is taken from the real journey of the
writer itself. Ahmad Fuadi studied at Pondok Modern Gontor, Islamic school.
There, he was arranging a dream to be a journalist. After graduated, Fuadi
continued his study to Padjajaran University with degree in International relations.
While at the story, the name of Fuadi changed with Alif. He also wants to be a
journalist through the Islamic education.
The second, based on the story, the researcher wants to analyze the content
of the novel related with the striving of Alif that shows about souls for strengthen
and education for life. If someone lives with knowledge and he has no strength of
soul, he will not stiff when he faces a problem.
The third, the researcher uses individual psychological approach because
she wants to know what kind of element that supports dominantly, the striving of
the major character Alif.
Based on the explanation above, the researcher is interested to analyze The
Land of Five Towers (2011) novel by using individual psychological approach.
Based on the background above, the researcher proposes to conduct a research
LAND OF FIVE TOWERS NOVEL (2011) AN INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH.
B.Literature Reviews
After the researcher has looked for several literature reviews in
Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta and in University in Central Java at least,
she did not find the research about The Land of Five Towers novel done by the
other researcher. So that the researcher cannot compare this research with other
research because this is the first study of The Land of Five Towers novel. The
researcher uses Individual Psychological approach to analyze the data and using of
The Land of Five Towers novel as an object. The researcher analyzes “Effort being
a journalist in Ahmad Fuadi’s The Land of Five Towers novel (2011): An
Individual Psychological Aprroach.
C.Problem Statement
Problem statement of the study will be:”How is effort being a journalist
reflected in Ahmad Fuadi’s The Land of Five Towers novel (2011)?”
D.Limitation of the Study
In this research paper, the researcher focused on describing effort being a
journalist reflected in The Land of Five Towers novel using individual
E.Objective of the Study
Based on problem statement above the objective of the study will be:
1. To analyze The Land of Five Towers Novel written by Ahmad Fuadi based on
the structural element of the novel.
2. To describe effort being a journalist in Ahmad Fuadi’s The Land of Five
Towers Novel (2011) based on Individual Psychological Approach.
F. Benefit of the Study
The benefit expected from this study will be:
1. Theoretical Benefit a. Lectures
The researcher hopes this result can be useful as references applied
in teaching learning process of literary study on The Land of Five Towers
novel for student in the university.
b. Teachers
The researcher hopes this result can be useful for additional
information and suggestion applied by the teacher in the teaching learning
process of literary study on The Land of Five Towers novel.
c. Students
The researcher hopes this result can be used as references and
additional knowledge to improve student’s abilities in literary study on The
2. Practical Benefit a. Readers
The result of this research can be useful input for the readers of novel
to enrich their knowledge in literary study on The Land of Five Towers
novel.
b. Other Researcher
The result of this research can be used to add the reference for the
other researchers in conducting further research related to this research from
other points of view.
G.Research Method 1. Type of the Study
In this research, the researcher applies qualitative research. Descriptive
qualitative is a type of research, which results the descriptive data in the form of
written or oral words from the observed object. The data sources are library and
literary data. Itspurposeis to analyze using Individual Psychological Approach.
The steps to conduct the research are as the following: 1). Determining the type
of the study, 2). Determining the object of the study, 3). Determining data and
data sources, 4). Determining technique of data collection, and finally 5).
2. Object of the Study
The object of the study is The Land of Five Towers novel written by
Ahmad Fuadi and was first published in 2011 by Gramedia Pustaka Utama
(GPU).
3. Types of the Data and the Data Source
There are two types of data, namely primary and secondary data, as
follows:
a. Primary Data
The primary data source is The Land of Five Towers (2011) novel
of Ahmad Fuadi published by Gramedia Pustaka Utama (GPU). The data are
taken from the dialogue, character’s description, plot and all of the
statements related to the problems.
b. Secondary Data
The secondary data sources are books or any information related to
the practice of effort being a journalist that supported the individual
psychological analysis.
4.Technique of the Data Collection
The technique of data collection in this study takes the following steps to
the data analysis, they are:
a. Reading the novel The Land of Five Towers many times.
b. Identifying the problem and to find the data. Therefore, research problem
c. Collecting some supporting data from other references related to the topic.
Therefore, the problems appearing will be able to be answered completely.
d. Drawing the conclusion of the analysis that has already done in the former
chapter.
5. Technique of the Data Analysis
The technique of the data analysis that is used is descriptive. The writer
makes some interpretations of the novel dealing with the character from the
major character which researcher wants to analyze using individual
psychological approach.
H.Research Paper Organization
The research paper of organization of effort being a journalist in Ahmad
Fuadi’s The Land of Five Towers (2011) novel by using individual psychological
approach divided in to five chapters. They are Chapter I will be Introduction,
Background of Study, Literature Review, Problem Statement, and Limitation of
the Study, Problem Statement, objective of the Study, Benefit of the Study,
Research Method, and Research Paper Organization.Chapter II will be Underlying
Theory, which present notion of Individual Psychological Approach, Structural
Element of the novel, and Theoretical Application. Chapter III will be Structural
Elements of Character and Characterization, Plot, Setting, Point of View, Style,
Theme, and Discussion. Chapter IV will be individual psychology Analysis of The
